SHANK3 and schizophrenia: Specifically, synaptic adhesion molecules and their associated scaffold proteins, such as neurexin-1α, neuroligin-4 and Shank3, are among the few synaptic genes that are frequently identified as causative factors for ASDs and schizophrenia (Sudhof, 2008; Won et al., 2013; de la Torre-Ubieta et al., 2016).